


Leila of the Predators (Book Two)

by J_P_Lupine



Series: Leila of the.... [2]
Category: Alien vs Predator (2004), Predators (2010)
Genre: Alien Sex, Aliens, Doggy Style, Don't copy to another site, Exophilia, F/M, Hair-pulling, Monsters, NSFW, Oral Sex, Outer Space, Size Difference, Teratophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 18:17:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19873981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_P_Lupine/pseuds/J_P_Lupine
Summary: Waking up and finding herself falling from miles above the ground, Leila is forced to accept her death as there is no way to avoid it....until a parachute opens and slows her decent into an alien planet with things she's never seen before and strangers in the same position she is in.





	1. Falling

I took in a sharp breath as I sat up while being very disorientated from sleeping, and I only woke because of the heavy jolt I felt. It took me a second to figure out where I was, and it was nearly unbelievable if I wasn't seeing it with my own two eyes.

I was plummeting through the sky, locked in some large, metal cage.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I tried to search for anything to help me but the only thing I had on my person were weapons. Of course, why in God's name would I just be carrying a parachute? This is it. This is how I would die.

Sighing, I sat cross-legged while rubbing my forehead. There was no way out of this, and even if I managed to get out of the cage I'd still be falling from an extreme height to my death.

"I should have eaten that cheeseburger." I mumbled before yelping as the cage twisted after it hit something.

~

Coming to after who knows how much time later, I groaned while my shoulder felt sore. The barred door to the cage was covered by fabric, and the fact that I was still alive had me guessing it was a parachute.

Well, now that I was alive and hopefully on the ground, I yanked on the barred door to test it's strength. I didn't see any locks to pick, but there was a panel just on the outside. Digging through my pockets for my kit, I was just about to try and crack these bars open, but the door clicked and partially opened. ....Was it automatic? Or remote controlled?

Hesitating, I crawled out of the cage and into a jungle. _'What the fuck was going on?'_ Whoever put me here was definitely going to the top of my kill list. The motherfucker or _'fuckers'_ were going to pay with their life.

I heard what sounded like multiple people walking just a few yards away and ducked down while sneaking closer. Drawing the knife from the holster in my boot, I peeked through the ivy. There were three males, and one female, each with their own weaponry. I'd have to do this the smart way.

Waiting until the man in front turned to check on the others, I slipped out and grabbed the back of his shirt collar while pressing the knife against his throat.

"Woah, woah, woah!" He immediately raised his hands defensively while the others pointed their guns in our direction.

"Tell me what I want to know and I won't slit his throat." My voice was firm and steady.

"Wait, hold on!" The guy I had a hold on raised his voice while slightly turning his head towards me. "Bright light, then falling from the sky, right?"

"....What do you know about it?" I pressed my blade harder against his throat.

"That's how we all ended up here. We don't know anything else." He raised his chin while eyeballing the knife.

"Any clue why they used cages?"

"Cages?"

"You didn't wake up in a cage?"

"Free falling with parachutes only. You were in a cage?" His brows furrowed.

"Oh, I'm going to kill those bastards even more." I practically growled while letting the man go.

"Who?" One of the others asked.

"Whoever dropped us here, duh." I dropped my knife back into its holster.

"Motherfucker!" Two men came tumbling into view, bloody and bruised as they were fighting. "Come on, you motherfucker!" It looked as if the man in the prison uniform was losing until he headbutted the other guy and grabbed a stick. He raised it over his head, pausing when he saw us standing there. "You with him?"

"No." The other woman replied, and the man under the prisoner threw him off and they scrambled to their feet.

"Why don't you mind your own fuckin' business?"

"We have bigger problems right now."

"Okay, Boss. Whatever you say." The prisoner was panting, and the taller guy grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"I will finish what you started." He stated in a threatening tone.

"Strength in numbers, huh?"

"Something like that." The woman tilted her head.

"Yeah? Well, maybe we should get that guy hanging in the tree." Orange, as I was now calling him, pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. One of my brows quirked up, but we all inevitably followed him to a screaming man hanging upside down from a parachute. "Hey, why don't you shut the fuck up?" Orange raised his voice to get....Maroon to stop shouting.

"Oh, thank God!"

"Stop moving. You're breaking the branch." Black, the woman, stated.

"Do you have anything to cut yourself down with?" Brown, the man that played the leader, asked.

"Why would I- No, I don't!"

"Look, we can get some rope from one of the chutes-"

"Do something!" Maroon waved his arms, and I sighed through my nose while pulling a throwing knife from a pouch on my thigh. It hit its target, causing Maroon to splash in the little pond below. "Help! Help!" He was flailing around as if he were drowning, and we all just stood there, waiting for him to realize he could stand in the water.

"Who the Hell are you?" Orange raised his chin.

"I'm a Doctor. I was on my way to work." Maroon seemed baffled as he put one hand onto his hip and waved the other. "Can someone please tell me, uh....what the fuck is going on here?"

I caught Black and Brown eyeing me from the corner of my eye, no doubt questioning who I was as well to be so armed to the teeth and clearly not a soldier like most of them.


	2. Colors and Beads

Walking through the jungle, I decided to stay with the group to better the chances of getting out. No one had yet to give a name due to mistrust, so I color coded them except for the big guy that had been fighting the prisoner- he was Beads. Other than that, there was Orange, the prisoner, Black, the woman, Brown, the guy walking in front of everyone else, Camo, the Russian man, Maroon, the doctor (or so he said), and Blue, the grumpy old man that kept cursing in Spanish.

"God damn, who the Hell is this guy?" Orange asked as we walked up behind a man in a dirty, but nice, suit. I wasn't really bothered by that question as much as I should have because what Slate (suit guy) was looking at was unnaturally in this jungle.

It was some sort of structure with marbled coloring and covered in vines and ivy. It jutted out from the ground and was shaped like a boomerang

"What the Hell is that?" Brown said lowly as my eyes drifted to the pile of bones at the base of the structure. _They were human._

"Who would do this?" Black asked.

"Whoever they are, they take trophies." Beads piped up. "In my culture, the warrior with the greatest trophies command the most respect."

"Whatever." Orange popped off, and Slate had yet to move from his spot.

"It's a test." Camo suggested. "To see how we do under pressure."

"If this were a test, you'd all be military....not total strangers." Black gently shook her head. "This is something else."

"Maybe it's ransom? Back in Tijuana, they'd put you in an oil drum. If the ransom's not paid, we'd light you on fire." Blue stated.

"I heard these stories about these experiments they run on cons, and they stick drugs in your food and sit back to watch what happens." Orange waved his hand.

"Well, it's not drugs." Maroon crossed his arms and was also wearing glasses now. "If it was a psychotropic compound we'd all be feeling the residual side-effects. Loss of motor skills, blurry vision.... If it was a behavioral experiment, I mean, there....there'd be a 'point.'" He explained, and there was a quiet pause.

"....What if we are dead?" Everyone, including Slate, looked at Beads.

"I was gonna be executed in two days." Orange shifted on his feet.

"I was in combat." Camo added.

"So was I." Beads nodded.

"This is Hell." Blue said with such certainty that I snorted.

"Last time I looked, you didn't need a parachute to get there." Brown stood up all of the way.

"I'm not gonna lie, I was about to kill a man, but there was no way I died." I waved my hand.

"It doesn't matter what happened, or why we're here. Only question is....how do we get out?" Brown rested his firearm onto his shoulder while walking away.

"Where are you going?" Black called out.

"To high ground."

"We need to stick together."

"Then you should follow me." And he continued to walk away. It didn't take long for us to follow, and even Slate tagged along.

We found an area where the jungle receded as rock took over. It was weathered, and trapped dozens of pools of clear water. We'd been walking for hours now, and Black finally spoke up about it.

"Hey, we need to rest."

"So rest." Brown popped off.

"You look like you could use it, too." Black said, but Brown kept walking. "You got a name?"

"Look," Brown turned and waved his hand. "I'm sorry. You wanna play scout leader, great. Or if you wanna follow me, fine. But I'm not doin' this." He spun his finger around. "Better on my own."

"Wanna see something fucked up?" Black questioned, and that perked my attention. I watched from afar as Black set a needle into a leaf and placed it into a puddle of water. It spun in a continuous circle, causing my eyes to widen a fraction.

~

Brown was hacking away at plants with his machete as we followed him in a single file line. The ivy and leaves were thick, and I was getting a weird feeling when I realized there were no mosquitoes. I mean, I wasn't really complaining about it, it was incredible to not be itching all over and possibly catching a blood disease, but it was still weird.

"You said you came in a cage, right?" Brown stopped, speaking over his shoulder back at me in a quiet tone.

"Yeah, why?"

"Did you see any other cages while you were falling?"

"No." My brows furrowed, and Brown put away the machete while quietly stepping into a small area free of the thick plants. There was a cage, about the size of the one I had come in, and the parachute was draped over the top of it. Its doors looked busted open from the inside....

Brown gestured to Slate, and the man that was no doubt affiliated with some form of yakuza took point while pulling a handgun from his concealed holster. His bare feet were absolutely silent on the mud and dead leaves, and he cautiously reached out to the fabric on the cage.

There was nothing inside.

Nothing except weird bugs and some sort of organic tissue in a lumpy pile. It looked like some sort of skin, but I was no biologist.

"Something was dropped here." Black stated the obvious. "Same as us."

"Not the same as us." Beads shook his head, his brows furrowed with concern. And, in all honesty, he had the right to be concerned. If that rotting, organic pile was in fact skin, the thing that had been inside was big, and with how it had broken free, it was strong.

"You said we were chosen.... Chosen for what?" Black asked Brown.

"Oh, shit." Orange was looking up and we followed his gaze to see dozens more cages in the trees. Some were even bigger than the cage in front of us.

We didn't stay there long in case anything from one of the cages was still lingering around. Continuing to walk, it seemed like were were heading through the jungle aimlessly, but we were actually looking for higher ground and a clearing to see where we were and find a way out.

Beads looked up, his eyes scanning the canopy as a bird called and insects buzzed. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and ended up tripping over an exposed root.

"Looking good there, Boss." Orange popped off, but my eyes darted around the trees, hearing what sounded like rope being quickly pulled. _'This can't be good.'_ I thought, and my suspicions were validated when a rope appeared taut right next to Beads.

Something loudly snapped, and a giant log rose into the treetops. A trap had been laid and now it had been set off. A massive log bigger than the one before swung through, and sharpened sticks began to rain down from above.

"Nope." I said, and I was out of there. Running just ahead of the spikes, I went back the way we came. I knew that route was safe more or less, and if this trap had any more complexities that I had yet to see, the spikes were more than likely set to lead into another trap.

I didn't stop running until I no longer heard the spikes hitting the ground. Turning around, I surveyed the area around me before cupping my hands around my mouth.

"Hey! You guys still alive?"


	3. Dead Men

"We triggered a dead man's trap." Beads stated as we were all standing in front of a rotting corpse with a giant hole in it's chest. It used to be a middle aged man, and a soldier by the looks of his clothes.

"It's two weeks." Maroon piped up. "....Judging from the rate of decomposition."

"He took opposition here." Camo gestured with his head. "Shooting in all directions." He raised his hands while looking around. "This was his last stand." Camo then reached over to the journal partially peeking out from the dead guy's pocket and flipped it open. "United States Special Forces. This is strange....he's supposed to be deployed in Afghanistan."

"What's he doing here setting traps for us?" Orange asked.

"They weren't meant for us." Brown said lowly. "He was hunting something else."

"He wasn't hunting." I spoke up while putting my hands on my knees while getting a better look at the hole in his chest. "The traps were genius, yes, but they were a form of defense. And whatever he was preparing for was a lot bigger than us."

"Bigger? What?" Maroon scoffed, and I stood up all of the way with my hands on my hips.

"That chunk of tree trunk that flew up was a deadfall. Rule of thumb with a deadfall is that you set the weight five times that of the target." Glancing around, I continued. "Whatever it was all set for, it got past them without triggering the traps and found Mr. Hole-y." There was a silent pause as everyone let that sink in.

This man was being hunted. No one sets traps like that unless they were paranoid or terrified, so whatever else was out here was not only big, but smart enough to avoid each and every one of them. That didn't bode well.

"Let's move." Brown turned on his heel, a grim expression on his face. I no longer felt as safe as I did before even though I was armed to the teeth, literally, because this threat was an unknown in every single aspect. I killed people for a living and was constantly faced with unknowns, but this....this was different.

If I wasn't careful, I'd no doubt end up as prey, and I didn't like that one bit.

We finally reached a break in the trees at a cliff, seeing the expanse of jungle reaching to the horizon in every direction with mountains, hills, and valleys seemingly just dropped where they were. However, my focus was on the sky. There were visible planets, either because they were just that huge, just that close, or both, but even an asteroid belt around one planet was visible from where I stood.

My shoulders slumped. ' _Fuckin' aliens.'_ I thought. _'Holy shit, Uncle Tito was right.'_ I groaned while covering my face with my hands. This added a whole new level of danger and a proper 'oh, fuck' mood.

"We're gonna need a new plan." Brown sounded a bit in disbelief.

"No shit." I grumbled.

~

"Hey, where we goin'?" Orange called out.

"Someone put us on this rock, there's got to be a way off." Brown replied.

"Oh! What the fuck?!" Orange screeched while pulling out a shiv as something quickly flew by up above. "Hey, you know what? Fuck this. This is bullshit, man. I want a gun!" He turned to Blue. "Yo, you got two motherfucking guns!" He waved his hand at Blue who then pointed both firearms at Orange to keep him back. "Man, somebody give me a gun. Come on, Russian, you got a big fuckin' gun."

Everyone just ignored his demands.

"C'mon, man....give me a gun." Orange then lunged at Beads and held the makeshift knife to his throat. "Give me a gun. Right now." Beads, without saying a word, pressed his pistol to the bottom of Orange's chin.

"Are you ready to die? Are you?" Beads asked lowly, but everyone paused as we heard a strange noise. Slowly turning towards it, we listened and heard it again before it went silent.

I pulled out my beretta while looking into the jungle, I was not gonna be under armed with knives in my hands. The sound of leaves quickly rustling alerted us that _something_ was running right for us.

Everyone just fired as a beast covered in horns and leathery skin came into view. Blue was shouting in Spanish, but over the gunfire, all I heard was 'fucking bitch' and 'devil'. The damned thing didn't go down until it's head exploded despite all of the rounds emptied into it, and then another one was coming right up the same way the first one had.

It was very dog-like in a way, and even more came into view, fanning out and separating as if they knew they'd be harder targets if they weren't grouped together. When my first clip emptied, I had to switch to another and they were still coming.

Camo just sprayed the animals with a rain of bullets, and that was when I realized the dogs had separated everyone because the laughing Russian was yards away, Maroon and Orange and Black were all out of sight, and I saw Brown and Slate running in one directions away from two of those beasts and Blue going the opposite way for the same reason.

If I wasn't a bounty hunter I'd probably be shitting my pants right now, but I was, so I knew how to remain calm and find the weaknesses of my target. The beasts were spiked on their head and back, most likely an evolutionary trait to protect and defend from attacks. However, their underbellies seemed to be made of smoother skin and had no form of protection other than the fact that the animal was low to the ground.

I aimed for there, firing whenever I had an opening while they were bounding towards me. My hypothesis seemed to be correct so far as I was using less ammo to take one of them down. I was also standing my ground, pack animals hunted by singling out the weakest and taking it down and I wasn't about to show that I was prime prey. I, too, was a hunter. Like them, I was a predator, and even though I was in unfamiliar territory I was going to show them that they came into the wrong domain.

The last one in front of me leapt, and my beretta clicked. I didn't have time to switch clips, so in one fluid motion I pulled a knife from my belt and swung upwards. The brute crashed into me, causing me to fall back as my blade sunk deep into its chest.

I grit my teeth and roared in pain from one of the horns slicing across my cheek and it's claws cutting through my sleeve. Thankfully, my clothes took most of the damage on my shoulder, but there were still bloody gashes underneath. Ignoring the burning pain, I flung the dead animal off of myself before scrambling to my feet. More were coming.

A high pitched whistle hurt my ears as the beasts slid to a halt and turned tail.

Fuck.

_They were trained._

These animals were clearly not what had killed that soldier, and if I was connecting the dots right, whatever had was now big, smart, and _like us_.

Ripping off the shredded parts of my sleeve, I bundled it up and pushed it against my cheek to help stop the bleeding. Regrouping with the others, I saw that those that hadn't been alone were uninjured and Orange was the bloodiest out of us.

"So they-they just....what, left?" Maroon waved his hand.

"No, the whistle." Black shifted on her feet. "They were called."

"All right, listen up. Everybody do a shell count. We're gonna have to conserve ammunition." Brown glanced around before kneeling to reload. "Reload. Now."

"Excuse me," Maroon raised his hand. "what the Hell is going on here?"

"We're being hunted." I stated, pulling a fresh clip from a pouch and loading it. "Cages....the soldier....all of us....we were brought here for the same reason." Holstering the pistol, I checked how many full clips I had left. "This planet is a game preserve, and we're the game."

"In case you didn't notice," Brown added. "We just got flushed out. They sent the dogs in, just like you would if you were stalking boar, shooting quail....they split us apart, and they watched. Testing us."

"How do you know this?" Black asked.

"Because....that's what I would do." The man replied while standing, his gun fully loaded now.

"This is fantastic." Maroon shrugged his shoulders.

"Wait." Beads had a concerned look on his face. "There are only seven of us." It only took a split second for me to figure who the missing person was. Blue.

"Help me...." A gutteral voice echoed with a chilling tone. "Help...." We all turned towards the direction the sound came from the loudest and followed it to a small clearing. In the very center of a patch of tall grass, Blue sat hunched over in plain view. "Help...." Blue rasped, and Black stepped forward.

"Wait." Brown stopped her, keeping his voice low.

"What?" Black turned to him, and I knew what the man was thinking.

This was a trap.

He cautiously stepped forward to the edge of the grass, his firearm raised, and picked up a stick.

"Help me...." Brown tossed the wood into the grass and I heard metallic snapping as something snapped the stick into pieces in the blink of an eye.

"Fuck me." Maroon stepped back while everyone else took a cautionary stance.

"Help...."

"Wound one man....make him suffer....make him bleed....make him call out for help. Set a trap....and kill those who come. I know because I have done this." Beads admitted.

"So we're going to leave him here, right?" Orange questioned. "Come on, look at him. He's done. There's nothin-there's nothing else we can do for him. Right?"

"....We leave him." Brown turned around to face us.

"We can't." Black spoke up.

"Then that's on you." Brown stated before walking away, the other men following suit. I stood next to her, staring at Blue without blinking. Something was wrong, we could all hear his please for help, but....he wasn't moving....at all.

His body wasn't moving, his shoulders weren't, nothing. _He wasn't breathing_. People that were alive were in a constant state of movement one way or another- it was usually visible to the naked eye but there were still many time that it wasn't. However, breathing and talking were visible.

"Help me...." It was definitely Blue's voice, but there was no movement from his lungs expanding or contracting or anything. That wasn't right....

Black raised her rifle and shot Blue in the head, causing him to slump forward even more. She lowered her gun while looking away, a solemn look in her eyes. I was turning to follow her, hoping what I had noticed was just a trick of my brain.

"Help me...." Fuck that. I was _**not**_ staying to see who or what continued to call out with Blue's voice. I was out of there.


	4. "I'm alive."

Brown raised his hand to signal for us to stop walking and knelt down, looking at the ground.

"What do we do?"

"We need to get to higher ground." Black nervously looked around, her gun still in her hands with her finger just resting shy of the trigger.

"Really? We're trapped on an alien hunting planet, and your solution is to walk onward?" Maroon gestured and I slightly cringed at Brown as he was sniffing something off the ground. 'I hope that's not alien poop.' I thought.

"It wants us to run. That's how it hunts. This is its jungle. Its game. Its rules. We run....we die." Brown stated.

"What's the alternative?" The black haired woman looked to the crouching man.

"We need to find out what we're dealing with. Dog tracks go that way." Brown pointed straight ahead. "We go after them." He stood back up and cautiously went forward, careful to not step in the mud where the alien dog tracks were.

It wasn't until a good few minutes after that the tracks veered to the left and Brown waved his hand to Black. She went to the front of the group and used the scope on her rifle to check the area ahead.

"No movement." She stated, but she was still on edge as we moved forward between the dense foliage on either side of us. I could hear birds and bugs in the trees above, but I doubted they were anything like what I was accustomed to.

Wiping the sweat from my face with my sleeve, we entered a clearing and I clenched my jaw when I accidentally touched the gash on my cheek. Looking back up, I saw bare trees in the clearing being used to hang up dead creatures that had been skinned or to stretch out hides to dry and tan.

"Looks like we're not the only things being hunted." Brown popped off as I was looking at a garland made from strung together bones. Black took a shallow breath, having to cover her mouth and nose as she passed a pile of rotting organs with insects crawling all over them. Bones were stacked all around as we moved about the area with cautious steps.

There was a freshly skinned.... _something_ dripping blood still, so whatever had been here couldn't have left too long ago. There was a torch already burning on a pole with some sort of skull on top, and my gaze drifted to the line of sun bleached skulls on a rock that were definitely _human_.

Beyond the skulls, however, was something that had yet to be skinned or torn apart like everything else. It was humanoid looking and tied to a similar structure we had found Slate staring at. The creature's face had mandibles for a mouth and a prominent brow. It's skin looked scaly and was mottled with dark and light shades of brown, it's face and torso area looking to be the lightest in color.

I slowly walked closer to get a better look, hearing the others coming up behind me. Whatever this thing was, it had a rather large head and hair-like appendages that were thick and somewhat resembled dreadlocks in a way. There were dark spines along it's brow and down the middle of it's chest as drool was dripping from one of the mandibles.

"What are you doing?" Camo hissed when I stood less than a foot from the alien. I didn't answer as I hesitantly reached up and touched one of the tendrils hanging from the creature's head. It felt oddly like rubbery skin and there were these strange bands of metal on each one.

"You shouldn't touch it, what if it's carrying diseases?" Maroon whispered.

"Then I'll catch a disease because of my stupid curiosity." I replied, my hand drifting to the tusks on the ends of each mandible. I was gentle, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end when I felt the hot breath coming from the thing's open mouth. _It was still alive._ Taking a step back, I flipped the safety off on my gun. "Five bucks it speaks English."

"What?" Black gave me a confused look and I used my free hand to flick the alien right on the forehead. It reared up, flaring its mandibles while roaring and causing the others to stumble back.

"Shit! Fuck! The fuck is that thing?!" Orange shouted, and I had yet to move from where I stood. I didn't have much to fear from the thing seeing as it was tied up, so unless it could spit venom like a cobra or something I would be fine.

"This is a mistake." Black backed away and I looked at the pink flesh inside the creature's mouth were pointed teeth were. I saw no molars or teeth for grinding, so it was safe to assume this thing was a pure carnivore. "We have to leave. Now!"

"....Where's the tough guy?" Maroon questioned as the alien's roar died down to a low growl that reminded me of a crocodile.

"He left us." Black sounded shocked, but I wasn't too surprised, we were all complete strangers from questionable backgrounds.

"He's here." Beads stated before something suddenly stabbed through his gut, lifting him off the ground as he screamed in pain and accidentally fired his automatic. Brown came out of hiding just as fast and was shooting- whatever his target was could only be seen as dirt and dust fell on it as it was running.

"Ru-un!" Brown shouted but I was already booking it after a quick mourn of Beads's death. Like Hell was I fighting something invisible and bigger than me. I could hear Camo's rapid gunfire and the popping of Slate's handgun and some other noises, but I was too busy running to analyse them.

Leaning back as I was going down a steep hill, I slid to a halt when it suddenly dropped off to a body of water next to a couple of waterfalls.

"Forgive me, beretta." I mumbled before taking a step back and diving into the water below as I heard screaming behind me. A rule of survival I lived by was to never be the one to get caught by the enemy and a good surefire way to avoid that was to not be stuck in a shootout.

Surfacing, I took a deep breath and looked back to see the others rolling off the cliff and smacking into the water. I couldn't help but laugh as each one just fell in and could only imagine how they had tripped down the hill and had been rolling.

Swimming to the shore, I shook off and began to wring out my clothes. The others pulled themselves onto the rocks like exhausted seals and Black went straight for Brown and punched him.

"You set us up! He led us into that death camp." She turned to us and I looked at her while dumping the water from my boot.

"What were you expecting at the end of an alien hunting dog's trail? A Boy Scout's camp?"

"But he hid and waited for the thing to strike. We were _bait_!"

"I needed to know who we were up against." Brown panted, raising his gaze to each of us. "Now I do."

"A man is dead because of that." Orange popped off while leaning on a rock.

"This morning you were ready to kill him."

"Well, it ain't this goddamn morning, is it?"

"Well, at least he didn't die in vain." Brown retorted.

"He didn't need to die at all." I stated, plopping down on a dry rock while bringing attention to myself. "We're all warrior's one way or another, we could have had the stealthiest of us stalk the camp and report back what they found." I waved a hand.

"And if that had failed, we'd still have lost a man."

"It would have been less likely."

"Yeah, well, at least now we now there's more than one of them and that they use projectile and energy based weapons. That they have some sort of cloaking device. That they're bigger than us....stronger. And also heavier." Brown pointed at the ground and Black spoke up again.

"You put us at risk for yourself. You want to be on your own? You got it."

"Why don't you tell them the truth?"

"I don't know what you're talking-"

"You know what I'm talking about! The way you looked at that _thing_ that was strung up. The way you reacted. She knows what it is. Don'tcha?" Brown questioned and Black went quiet before dropping her gaze and sitting down.

"....We don't have a name for them. '87, Guatemala....a sting ops went into the jungle. High end. Six men, plus a CIA liaison....only one made it out. In his debrief, he said they came in contact with something. He gave a detailed description. The thing on the totem." She then looked up at Brown. "It wore some kind of camouflage that adjusted to ambient light, made it nearly invisible in our spectrum. It could see in infrared. Heat signatures. He used mud to block his. That's how he beat it. It hunted and killed his team one by one."

"Whatever it is, wherever they're from, we're gonna kill them all. We'll set up a defensive perimeter. Make it look like we're holing up- that'll bring 'em to us." Brown nodded. "We force them into a choke point. We get them into overlapping fields of fire. It can be done. I can't do it alone." The man looked to each of us and I just sighed while shaking my head.

~

Slate had taken a lookout position, sitting by a fallen tree while chewing on a small stick. I strolled over to him and plopped down on the log before gesturing with my head.

"So, you don't follow rules very well?" I questioned, and Slate glanced at me without saying a word. "Yakuza, right? Or did you lose your fingers in a freak accident?" He didn't say anything and just went back to looking out into the jungle. "....Either you don't understand me, you're mute, or you just don't talk much."

I tilted my head while observing the man. He had taken off his suit jacket, but still wore the vest and long sleeved button up. There was a gun holster clipped over his shoulders that looked a bit like the ones cops would wear with a handgun in each holster. His hair was buzzed and he was still chewing on that stick while sitting with a straight back.

Even if he was just sitting there and scanning the area for any movement, he was still more entertaining than the prisoner behind me talking about doing so much cocaine if he ever got back to Earth. Turning my attention away from Slate, I finally took the time to check on the wound on my shoulder. The bleeding had stopped long ago, but it seemed the dunk in the water had cleaned it well enough. It wasn't deep enough to scar unlike the cut on my cheek, and as long as neither wounds got infected, I'd be fine.

My head jerked up when I heard movement a few yards off and everyone became tense, getting to their feet with their guns ready. Maroon and Orange stayed back since they had no guns, and I raised my beretta.

"Why isn't it coming?" Black questioned while looking through her scope.

"They see our traps." Brown mumbled and quietly moved from where he was next to Black. "You're pretty agile, right? Fast?"

"Faster than all of you as far as I've seen." I popped off and he nodded before looking out in the direction of the noises. "....Seriously?"

"Think you can do it?"

"Wouldn't be a bounty hunter if I wasn't able to take a few risks." I stated while holstering my gun and checking the laces on my boots. "How close do you need 'em?"

"Just lure them into the open so we can get a clear shot." Brown replied.

"Got it." And I kicked up dead leaves when I ran. I circled around the traps we had put up and dashed right through the area where we were hearing the noises from. The wind from my speed was a refresher from the heat of the jungle that made me perpetually sweat. I heard a strange noise behind me when I darted around a tree and I picked up my pace when I heard something chasing me. My heart was pounding in my chest but I actually wasn't scared as the thing was following me right to where the other's were aiming.

It was big, but I was keeping just ahead of it until I heard a shot and the thing went down. Slowing my pace, I panted while turning around. The thing laying on the ground was humanoid, but it wasn't the same things from before. It was large and it's skin resembled tree bark or rocks.

"Is he dead?" Orange yelled as the others ran over. "Why ain't you smilin'?" He asked me before turning to the thing on the ground. "Oh, shit."

"That thing from the cages." Camo stated.

"Maybe it thought we were the ones who dropped it here. Good shot, though." Brown told Black, but she was busy looking at a bullet hole in a tree.

"....I missed."

"Oh, you did not just fucking say that." I groaned, still panting as I was trying to catch my breath.

"Over here." We all looked to the side where a whisper came from. "Over here." It was from a different direction now, and the voice kept whispering the same thing but from different positions all around us until- "Turn around." Brown made a face and slowly turned before seeing a gun aimed right for his face as a humanoid figure appeared when the cloaking was dropped.

"What....the _fuck_ are you?" Brown questioned and the figure pulled back the huge gun before taking off the mask to reveal another human.

"I'm alive."


	5. Timber

"You talk too loud." The man said lowly after a pause. "Smelled you since you got here. If I can smell you, if I can hear you....they can, too." He glanced around. "Storm coming soon. This way." He gestured with his head and turned away, walking in a direction he clearly wanted us to follow in.

"Wait." Black spoke up, her voice making the man stop. "Who are you?" Rather than giving a straight answer, he hummed a few lines of a song before raising his brows.

"I'm the one that got away. The one you don't fuck with." And he was walking again. The sky was darkening as we followed him through the jungle and out of it towards some sort of abandoned structure. The man went inside, and it was as I was following him that I realized the structure was some sort of huge machine. It was rusted with missing parts and exposed pipes and wires dangling from it.

The man opened a latch and each of us crawled through it after him.

"Come on. They'll never find you in this place." The man stated before he was crawling through a narrower space. My eyes wandered as we followed the man through the bowels of the abandoned machine, more curious than before about the aliens running the show on this planet if this was one of theirs.

"Where are we?" Black asked.

"This is a drill they left behind. Machine's dead, but the power source ain't." The man replied as we followed him through the darkness. The only thing lighting out way were the flashlights until the stranger- let's call him Patches- was fiddling with something and the lights overhead came on. Patches waved us into a room before taking off his jacket.

It looked as if he had been living here for a _long_ time.

"Wow, what a shit-hole. You live here?" Orange popped off after Patches had blocked off the entrance.

"Oh, no. No. This is my summer home. I winter in the Riviera. The schools are so much nicer there. And the men....oo-la-la." Patches retorted. "By the way, welcome."

"How have you survived?"

"Salvaging what I can, when I can, from whatever I can. They, uh, they drop y'all in too?" The man chuckled.

"Yup." Brown nodded.

"What a rush." Patches laughed lowly while shaking his head. "Ba-bum-bum-ba! Ba-bum-bum-ba!" Orange knocked on some sort of chest plate, getting Patches' attention. "Hey! Yeah, I'll-I'll tell him." He said as if to someone standing by him when no one was there. "Hey, uh, Agent Orange, you wanna put that down? Certain people around here are particular about other people messin' with they shit. Very important, though, disrupts the heat signature." He pointed to the chest plate Orange put back down. "You motherfuckers." Patches looked up while going to stir something in a pot.

"So you killed one?"

"Oh, I killed....two? Maybe three. I can't remember. Anyway, there's two different types of them out there." Patches waved his hand and I took a seat to listen. "They're similar, but they're different. It's kind of like the difference between dogs and wolves. But the ones that are runnin' things up there- the larger ones hunt the smaller ones. It some kind of, uh, blood feud, I guess. Been goin' on for a long time. Yeah."

"So they do this just for sport?" Brown raised his brows.

"Oh, yeah. They bring in fresh meat season after season. I mean shit you wouldn't believe. Bring it in, and, uh, hunt it and kill it, in that order."

"How long you been here, man?" Orange asked.

"Uh...." Patches furrowed his brows while looking to think. "Seven seasons, I think. What?" He looked over his shoulder. "10? Damn. An-anyway, every once in a while, one of us kills one of them. And let me tell you, 'that's' when they get 'real' interested. See, they learn," He snapped his fingers. "quick. They adapt. They develop a whole new set of skills. They come back the next season in threes, always in threes. Their armor might have changed, or their weapons have changed, or their tactics have changed. Oh, it's amazing."

"So, it's like a evolution?" Camo looked rather concerned by this new information. "They are trying to make themselves into....better killers?"

"Mm-hm." Patches nodded.

"You said they come back. How?"

"They got a ship."

"A ship?"

"Yeah. It's 30 yards from their camp." He then chuckled and was talking to someone that wasn't there again. "I told you they wouldn't see it. I told you they wouldn't."

"You were there." Black stated. "You could have helped us."

"How do we kill them?"

"However you can."

"They must have a weakness."

"Not many." Patches shook his head. "You want to survive, you dig in deep. Stay hid."

"Yeah, well, we're gonna go with door number 2. How do we get out of this valley?" Orange pointed.

"Oh. 10 seasons?" Patches made a face. "First two seasons- no, three- I was walking in the same direction, trying to find the edge of the preserve...." He laughed. "Let me tell you something- there ain't no edge of the preserve."

"Maybe you and your friend wanna tell me about that ship."

"I see. That's a brilliant idea. The whole time I've been here, it never occurred to me to....commandeer that spacecraft. I wouldn't know how to fly it. He would. Cause you know how to fly?"

"I'll give it a shot."

"Well, I want to get some sleep." Patches stood up and put his finger to his lips. "No noise. They're out there. They're always out there. Water in there. Help yourself." He pointed to a corner before gesturing to the pot. We watched as he went to another corner and laid down behind some stuff to go to sleep.

Things seemed to settle down after that as the others got comfortable and I went to get some water. Drinking, I felt some relief and tore off my other sleeve to dip into the water and clean of my face and shoulder better. There were no doctors or hospitals I could just walk up to to get treatment from, so I had to take care of my injuries as much as I could with these limited tools.

Looking around, I wasn't too surprised to find a needle among the random scraps of metal and repurposed some thread from my ripped sleeve.

"Anyone see a mirror?" I questioned, and the others seemed briefly confused before glancing around.

"Why?" Orange made a face and Camo found a broken shard of glass and handed it to me. Putting the glass on my lap, I bent the needle as much as I could without breaking it and pulled a lighter from one of my pockets. Flipping open the Zippo, I had to try a few times to get it to light because it was still a bit wet, but the flame eventually lit and I held it under the needle to sterilize it. "It's like watching a movie." Orange tilted his head, now aware of what I was doing and even Maroon and Camo were watching.

"If only this were a movie." I popped off. "All this shit would be a brilliant sci-fi, action that raked in a lot of dough and I'd be some rich actress using my money to take care of my shit and donating the rest to charity."

"You'd really do that?" Maroon furrowed his brows. "Donate your wealth to charity?"

"I may be a killer, but I'm not heartless."

"I'd spend my wealth on cocaine and hookers." Orange chuckled.

"Of course you would."

"What type of charities?" Camo lifted his chin a bit and I turned the needle in the flame.

"You know, helping the environment type of shit. Donating to those that can't afford proper healthcare and what not. You'll be surprised how many disgusting things I've seen that weren't me spilling a man's guts. Ever heard of Flint, Michigan?" There was a short pause and I flicked the lighter closed and let the needle cool. "It's a city that, since 2014, hasn't had access to safe drinking water. Over ten people have died because of it and more have gotten sick, but there's very few people actually making an effort to fix their water. Those are the types of things I'd donate my wealth to."

"You serious?" Orange cringed.

"Yeah. I didn't even know about it until I had a target hiding in that city. You ever seen children not even able to play in the yard because they're too sick from the water? It was hard to believe something like that was happening in such a ' _flourishing_ ' country." I threaded the needle and tied a knot in the end. "You're a doctor, right?" I turned to Maroon and he hesitantly nodded. "We get back, you should do some work there. Help the people out a bit. Do that and we'll be square since I got you out of that tree."

"Yeah. Sure." He nodded and I nodded back. Picking up the broken bit of mirror, I was about to start sewing up the gash on my cheek when a hand came from my side and took the needle from me. I raised a brow as Slate took a seat in front of me and I lowered the mirror as he leaned a little closer to take a look at the wound.

Without saying a word, he began to stitch the injury closed for me while I winced from the pain of the needle. He used a knife to cut the excess string when he was done and used the shirt sleeve I had used as a rag to clean up the blood that came from the injury being agitated.

"Thanks." I said lowly, and Slate simply got back up and wandered back to where he had come from.

~

Eating, I had finally relaxed and even though the food wasn't very good, it was at least something to fill my belly with.

"Smoke!" Brown spoke up, quickly getting to his feet. "Smoke! Smoke!" He kept repeating while keeping his voice low and the smell burned my nostrils as I could see smoke filling the room. Those that had been sleeping jolted awake and we were looking for the source of it but none of us saw any fire.

However, it became evident that Patches was missing. We were all scrambling about, looking for a way in the confined room.

"He's a scavenger! He wants what we have!" Maroon declared.

"Come on, there must be a way out!" Black yelled.

"Get down!" Brown shouted and we all quickly ducked as he fired his gun at one of the walls. There was a huge explosion from the blast and I doubted the aliens hunting us weren't alerted by it.

"Yeah, that didn't open up shit!" Orange popped off.

"Wasn't meant to asshole." Brown lowered the gun. "Calling in the cavalry." The man then hurried to gather supplies from what Patches had salvaged all over the room while I went straight for the door. It was heavy and wouldn't budge at first, but using one of my knives I managed to wedge it open a bit.

Sticking my fingers into the gap, I yanked on it more and nearly stumbled back when I had it open enough to see into the hall.

"Oh, shit!" I backed away just before something banged against the other side. The door opened even more, but the noise then stopped as everyone had their attention trained to the door.

"....It's toying with us." Brown glanced to me. "What do you see?" He asked and I drew my gun before even daring to go look. Peeking through the gap, I saw that the hall was completely empty.

"Nothing." I replied before the panel being used as a door was kicked out by Brown. Leaving the room filling with smoke, we carefully filed into the hall with the big guns in front leading the way. It was darker now than before, and we had to move quickly because of the aliens now here as well.

Maroon, not paying attention, somehow got separated from us but we didn't have time to circle back to go find him. However, he reappeared on the other side of a wall, begging Camo to get him out of there. But, alas, we had to keep going despite Camo actually trying to save Maroon.

Oddly enough, not even a minute after and Maroon was back with us while Camo was missing and an explosion went off just as we reached outside, nearly burning us.

"We killed it." Orange said with disbelief. "We fuckin'- We killed it! We fuckin' killed it!" He laughed and cheered. "We killed it! Wooo! We fuckin' killed it! Who's your daddy now, motherfucker?! Suck my dick, bitch!" We all paused, looking behind the inmate to see something moving just before Orange was shot and flew from the impact.

One of the aliens appeared before us, wearing a mask with some jawbone attached to the outside of it. A triple red light lit up on the mask and lined up with Brown's forehead as something whirred and a gun on the alien's shoulder moved.

"Die, you space maggot!" Orange suddenly jumped onto the thing's back, stabbing it with his shiv and neon green blood oozed from the alien's wounds. "Who do you think you're dealing with, huh? Is that all you've got? Go, go!" He then shouted to us and we didn't think twice before running.

It was dark and windy out, the storm Patches had mentioned actually had come, and we were running for the camp to find the ship. And, if Orange somehow managed to kill that alien, that left only two and one was tied up in the death camp. If we were lucky, that one would fly the ship to get us out of here.

Reaching a clearing of tall grass, the wind died down and I happened to look back just to see Slate stop running.

"Dude, what are you doing?" I questioned, and the man didn't give an answer as he slowly turned. I saw a katana in his hand that he no doubt got from the scavenger, and he looked over his shoulder and just nodded. He was going to take care of the last alien on his own.

Breathing through my nose, I fully turned towards the man and bowed to him in respect as it was common practice in his culture. Standing back up all of the way, I saw the small smile on his face before turning to catch up with the others.

"We're close! Come on!" Brown called back to us.

"Oh, shit! Oh, shit!" Maroon yelped and we turned back to see his foot stuck in a sort of bear trap.

"Fuck."

"Aaah!" Maroon screamed as Black pried the trap open and freed his foot. "Another inch and it would have hit my tibial artery. I guess this is my lucky day."

"It isn't." Brown sighed while shaking his head. "That trap wasn't meant to kill. It was meant to maim." He panted. "He's dead weight. Come on."

"No, um- No. I can-I can still walk." Maroon shook his head and tried to stand, crying out when he fell back down from the pain.

"Look, you guys can figure this out without me. I'm going to go try and convince that alien to help us and get that ship running." I waved my hand.

"What? No- don't leave!" Maroon raised a hand as if to stop me.

"Look, we need to get out of here as fast as possible and there's no telling how much it's going to take to get that thing to help us or let alone understand English if it doesn't. You three figure out a way to catch up while I go ahead and take care of that. If they decide to leave you, dude, that's on them, not me. So you better start trying to talk them out of just leaving your ass." I shrugged at Maroon before turning.

"Be quick." Brown nodded to me and I went on ahead. Panting as I dashed into the camp that was lit by torches, I spotted the creature still strung up. My pace slowed as I cautiously approached. Glancing around, I checked to make sure none of the other bigger ones were around and swallowed as I stood in front of him.

Well, I assumed it was a him because of the anatomical similarities to a human male, but for all I knew it could be a female. I went with male however, as these things did wear clothes and the only thing this one wore was leather over his crotch area and fishnets and more leather on his legs.

But, hey, if I was wrong, my bad- I was no expert on aliens.

"Hey." I spoke up, and I watched as he slowly raised his head, looking at me with those deep set, amber eyes. I watched as the alien's mandibles flared as a soft noise came from his throat and I had no clue if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "I'm hoping you understand what I'm saying, but I want off this planet." I drew one of my knives and his gaze drifted towards the blade reflecting the light of the fires.

Stepping closer, I raised the knife.

"I'll cut you down if you take us to the ship." I said, and his mandibles flared again as it sounded like it gave a low growl, however it didn't seem like a threatening noise. "You understand me, don't you?" My brows furrowed and this time the sound was more like a purr. "Oh, I hope that's a yes." I swung the knife down, breaking the binds holding the alien and it fell face first onto the ground.

Getting to his feet, I had to crane my neck to look at its face as it seemed more massive standing in front of me now. I barely came up to his chest and dear God, it was a lot more intimidating now that it wasn't tied up.

His large hand suddenly shot out and grabbed me by the throat, having a firm grasp but not chocking me as he used a finger and thumb to tilt my head from one side to the other. I was incredibly tense, but I didn't want to have to fight him unless I had to and he only seemed to be inspecting me for some reason.

He leaned down to get a closer look and my eyes went from his to those teeth rather close to my face as that sound from before continued to lowly come from his throat. Raising his other hand, he then flicked me on the forehead and let me go. I grunted from the sharp pain, but it seemed he recognized me as the one that had done the same to him before.

Rubbing my forehead while watching him, he then moved about the camp, picking up weapons and strapping them to his body. When he picked up a mask from the ground, I waved my knife to gesture to him.

"So, is that a yes you'll help, or are you just gearing up while I stupidly let you before you kill me?" There was obviously no verbal answer as he turned to look at the device on his arm and pushed some buttons. A holographic display appeared, showing what I could safely assume was this planet and the three other planet that closely orbited it. He pushed a few other buttons, and to my sweet relief, the Earth and moon were now displayed. A smile pulled at my lips as I heard the ship whir to life not too far away.


	6. Broke A Rule

Spinning on my heel when I heard groaning behind me, I turned in time to see the alien with the jaw on his mask dropping the others in a net into a pit. The one I had freed stepped forward and they roared at each other. _'Don't ever get caught in the crossfire.'_ I thought, taking a few steps away as the two large aliens ran right at each other.

_'Don't ever get caught in the crossfire. Don't ever get caught....'_

They crashed together like fighting elephants and sparks flew from their armor and equipment. Water splashed in the puddles they fell in and stomped through, and I just stopped. Looking to where the ship was beyond the trees, then to where the others were and finally the aliens, I rolled my eyes and ran around to the pit, dashing right past the alien I had cut down as he was running to miss the shots of energy being blasted at him from the bigger alien.

Sliding to a halt at the pit, I knelt down and looked over the edge. Black, Brown, and Maroon were struggling in a net and the woman was the first to notice me.

"Catch!" I told her, pulling out a knife as she stuck her hand through one of the holes in the neck. I tossed the knife right into her hand and she began to saw at the material trapping them. "Oh, shi-!" I quickly rolled away before a large foot stomped onto the ground where I had been.

The bigger alien came after me and I, being smaller, dove under a fallen log he'd have to climb over or go around to follow me. Scrambling to my feet, I spun on my heel as I drew some throwing knives from my pouch and threw them right at the alien. Two of three struck his torso, the third being shot by the gun on his shoulder.

The gun then aimed at me, but before it could shoot, the smaller alien tackled the bigger one and they were back to brawling. I returned to the pit and I had to be quick. Reaching my hand into the pit, I looked at Brown.

"Come on, you first. You can help me get the other two out." Waving my hand, he grabbed it and I braced myself before grunted and pulling the taller, heavier male up just high enough that he could reach the edge to pull himself up the rest of the way. However, we didn't have the chance to pull the other two up as we had to scatter like roaches to miss getting shot.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" I hissed, taking cover behind a pile of bones and dead trees. I could still hear the two aliens roaring and fighting, and I looked around while thinking fast.

The ship was rising from the trees and I groaned, assuming Brown had bolted and left us all behind. Taking off all of my holsters, I stripped down to the bare minimum to lighten myself. Peeking over to the aliens, I saw them headbutt each other, causing their masks to fly off and reveal the bigger one's face that looked even uglier than the smaller one.

I grabbed my biggest knife and tied it to a stick before dropping down and rolling in the mud. Crouching, I kept low while leaving my cover just in time to see the ship exploding and the alien I had freed was on his knees as the bigger one had him by the throat and let out a victorious roar.

"Hey!" I shouted, grabbing the creature's attention. Waiting for the gun to aim at me, I jumped to the side and felt the heat from the explosion just a few feet away. Snatching a stick from one of the fires, I lit the hanging corpses, making a wall of fire to cover me as I ran right for the beast. I was hoping to God their vision being based on heat was true.

Jumping off of a pile of dirt and bones, I gave a war cry while baring my teeth and drove the makeshift spear right into the ugly alien's eye. It sounded like it was screaming as it reeled back and I grabbed the gun off its shoulder, sparks flying from the now exposed wires.

The alien pulled the spear from its eye socket, that neon blood spilling out as he threw the weapon to the ground and grabbed me by the throat. Flaring his mandibles, I shoved the end of he gun right into his mouth. I don't know how, but I just _knew_ how to get it to fire without it being mounted and the alien's brains blew out from the back of his skull.

Coughing as I fell to my knees, I felt bleeding scratches from the alien's short claws that were thankfully not too deep. The bigger alien fell to the ground with a loud thud and the one behind me seemed to sigh in relief as his shoulders slumped. Swallowing hurt as I turned my head, my eyes going momentarily wide as I saw Brown raising an axe.

"Stop!" I barely got up in time to stand between the human and alien, raising my hands while looking right at him.

"What are you doing? It's one of them!" He looked at me as if I was insane and I dropped my hands a fraction.

"And if there is any other way off this planet, he'd know about it. You really want to kill our only way back home?" Brown seemed to hesitate at my words, but dropped the axe. Panting, I put my hands onto my knees and let my head hang from my shoulders.

~

"Leila, where's those fish?" Isabelle questioned and I waved to the bucket beside me before going back to drinking from the river. We had been traveling for weeks, following the alien to God knows where he was taking us- hopefully to a way home- and we were having to survive by fishing and eating the creatures being dropped onto the preserve. The black haired woman bent over and hoisted the bucket onto her hip before carrying them over to the fire to be scaled and cooked.

Royce was sitting on a log, cutting a stick into a spear while the mottled alien was looking into the jungle, keeping an eye out for anything that might suddenly run up on us. Splashing my face with water, I shook my head before slicking my wet bangs back and walking over to the alien. We had no clue what his kind were still, but we had started calling him Spike because of him having those spines unlike the other ones.

So far it seemed he was repaying the debt of freeing him, so it was safe to assume he or his kind held a high sense of honor. Which, might I add, is a pretty damn good thing.

"Hey, are you an alien? Because that ass is out of this world." I popped off with a smile and pointing at Spike with both hands. I heard Royce heavily sigh from where he sat and the taller alien just stared down at me. He didn't move at all, didn't even blink, and just 'stared'.

"Leila, why do you keep doing that?" Isabelle asked, chopping the head off of a fish without even looking at me.

"I want to see how much of the human language he understands." I replied.

"And you choose to do so through horrible space pick-up lines?" Royce made a face.

"When else would I have the perfect opportunity for this? He's literally an _alien_." I gestured to Spike. "Plus, we've got who knows how much time before we get to where we're going." I then turned back to the alien while smirking. "Is that a telescope in your pants or are you just happy to see me?"

If Spike were human or had a more human face, I could safely assume he would be looking at me with a really 'done' expression.

"I think you might be a star because I can't stop orbiting around you."

"Please, stop." Royce put his knife and spear to the side to help Isabelle with the fish.

"Wanna make a gamma-ray burst?" Spike looked back into the jungle while crossing his arms. "Is it a full moon? Because I feel a tidal pull towards your heavenly body."

"I'm surprised he hasn't just killed you." The black haired woman popped off while waving her knife.

"Maybe he doesn't understand pick up lines and just thinks I'm saying random things." I put my hands onto my hips while looking the alien over. In actuality, he really did have an ass that was out of this world. Not to mention some killer thighs and a torso any woman would drool over if it were on a human. Oh, and how could I forget those arms?

At first, I was kind of confused by my interest in the alien, but then I realized that Spike, despite being a different species, was definitely eye-candy in those fishnets and leather.

Was that a strange thing to think? Had I been stuck here too long?


	7. Fruit

"We get back to Earth, I'm eating my weight in cheeseburgers." I sighed, looking down at the alien carcass before pulling the arrow from its side. Some of the critters that got sent to the preserve came with weapons, and I had scavenged a bow-like weapon from one of them. It functioned like a normal bow and arrow for the most part, except it never missed the target.

I believed it may have some sort of heat seeking technology in the arrows, but I wasn't sure and just knew it was cool as Hell.

"Well, we'll need a ship to do that." Isabelle popped off, wiping the sweat from her brow. The jungle was still just as hot and humid and I missed not being in a near constant sweaty state.

"Hey, maybe we'll find one soon. If that's where he's taking us." I rose my voice while pointedly looking at Spike as he slung the deer-like alien over his shoulder and seemed to have no problem carrying it.

"It would be easier if we could communicate." The woman in front of me placed her hands onto her hips while watching the bigger male walk away.

"Maybe then we could learn about his people, their culture, even. Hell, his damn name." Wiping the arrow clean off onto my pant leg, I dropped it back into the quiver and turned to follow the alien.

"How do you know he's not just leading us around until his friends come and get him?" She questioned.

"Wouldn't he have just killed us then? And it's been weeks. Months, Isabelle." She looked at me and I rose a brow. "And I've been popping off with the most ridiculous things this entire time to try and get a rise out of him, but he's just sitting there while I do it and could easily pop my head off like a bottle cap."

~

Poking a stick into the dying flickers of the dinner fire, embers flew up into the air and I sighed through my nose. Royce and Isabelle were asleep under a tarp tied to a few trees while Spike was lounging among the roots of another tree a distance away.

Looking up to the sky, I fell back to lay flat on the ground. The stars visible were so different from the ones that showed back home. I didn't really have anyone waiting for me back there, but I still missed it and not having to fight for my own survival to such a degree like we had to here.

Rubbing the scar on my cheek, I then hopped to my feet and walked away from camp, passing right by Spike as I grabbed my bow and quiver. My knives were already strapped to me, so I didn't have to pick those up. The alien stirred and looked at me as I passed, and I waved a hand over my shoulder.

"Going for a walk." I told him without pausing and I heard him chitter as if in reply. Being careful to not get lost, I just wanted a moment to myself away from the others. It was difficult enough being on an alien planet surrounded by things that were trying to kill us, and I didn't want my moment of depression to effect the others. Walking over the dead leaves on the ground, I listened to the night while keeping my eyes peeled for any movement.

Glancing over my shoulder, I couldn't see the light from the dying fire at all and took a seat on a fallen tree covered in moss. The jungle was far from silent with the sounds of what I assumed were nocturnal birds and insects, but there was a stillness to the atmosphere as I took a deep breath of the earthy air. And seconds passed into minutes as I just sat there with my thoughts.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, however, when something plopped down onto the log next to me. I hadn't even heard him, but Spike was now sitting next to me and looked at me while one of his mandibles twitched. His gaze didn't move from me as he raised his hand and dropped something into my lap. Looking down, it was hard to see clearly in the dark, but I could see enough and picked up one of the round fruits. It looked like a plum, but was furry like a peach and had a red streaks like a ripening apple.

We had found these before, so I knew they were safe to eat and picked one up to clean off on my shirt.

"Thanks." I told him before taking a bite from the crisp fruit that had a flavor that closely resembled a cherry. Spike picked one up and began to eat as well. His sharp teeth may not have been the best suited for consuming plants, but he was capable of doing so by simply shredding whatever he put into his mouth.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows onto his knees while we ate in silence. Pulling out the pit of the fruit, I tossed it deeper into the jungle. That, Royce had learned the hard way, was not safe to have in your mouth. The man had accidentally bitten into one and ended up with diarrhea that lasted for hours, which Spike had found hilarious and laughed in his own way by clicking his tusks together.

"You know, I just realized something." I spoke up, my voice low as I placed a hand onto the log and leaned on it while looking out into the trees. "You guys don't have lips, so I just assumed you couldn't talk, but I just remembered that we were nearly lured into a trap by one of those bigger guys mimicking that old guy's voice. Are you some sort of mute? You clearly understand English to a degree."

The alien seemed to pause for a second before taking another bite of the fruit in his hand. I made a face while turning my head fully to look at him.

"Bitch, you can talk?" He just kept eating and I leaned forward. "Oh, you can! Why have you been acting like you can't this entire time? Say something." Spike slightly leaned away from me, still not looking at me as I narrowed my eyes at him. "Are you shy? Wait....do you even know what shy is? Hold on, how much English _do_ you know?"

A large hand covered my face before pushing me out of his personal space.

"Stop." I paused at hearing his guttural voice that was low and more like a growl. Pulling his hand from my face, I looked at him.

"Okay, fine, you don't want to answer that, but I am curious." I calmly said before dropping my gaze to the large hand in mine. "It's like a snake...." I mumbled, feeling the small, smooth scales on his skin. Flipping his hand over, he finally looked at me as I stared at his palm. I compared it to my own and saw that they were fairly similar other than the size, texture, and a few other variations.

Running my fingers over his palm, his fingers twitched and I turned my attention to the short claws he had. They were rather blunt, but I knew they could still do damage if necessary. Out of curiosity, I pressed two of my fingers to his wrist to feel for a pulse. Could I feel it there like on a human?

I could.

It seemed to beat steadily beneath my fingertips, I glanced up at Spike as he was silently watching me.

"Can I touch your face?" I asked, and his mandibles moved a bit. He slightly tilted his head as if to ask why, and I half-shrugged. "Humans like to touch things out of curiosity. It's a way we learn." Spike just looked at me for a few seconds, but eventually dropped his head to where I could easily reach it and I took that as him giving me permission.

Running my hands over his reptilian skin, I tilted my head at its strangeness and felt the spines on his brow. Closer around his eyes and mouth felt more like human skin a bit, and it was quiet as my hands explored his face. It was rougher where he had scars and his mandibles twitched when I touched them. Grabbing the sides of his face, I thought of a way to pay him back for making us think he couldn't talk this entire time.

Headbutting him, he hardly seemed phased from the action while I, on the other hand, flew back and held my forehead while cringing and hissing in pain. I felt like I had hit a tree or wall and Spike burst into laughter, even smacking his hand onto his knee as he did so.


	8. Leila Did

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING: Mature content ahead, proceed at own risk*

"Oh, my god." Isabelle gasped as we looked down from the hill we were standing on. There was a clearing about a day's journey away and in it we could see a camp and a _ship_. I turned to the alien while Royce and Isabelle were laughing with relief and joy.

"Come here, big guy! Someone deserves a thank you hug!" I held my arms out and it looked like Spike sort of cringed while raising one of his hands. That just made my grin grow and I flung my arms around the large alien and gave him a bear hug. He was tense and grabbed the back of my shirt to pull me off before walking ahead down the hill towards the camp.

"Maybe he's just shy." Royce popped off, ruffling my hair as he passed to follow Spike. Walking next to Isabelle, I tried to fix my hair.

~

The day seemed longer than usual as we walked through the jungle, and because of how close we were, we walked long into the night as well until we just had to rest. Downing a canteen of water, I sighed and wiped the sweat from my face. We'd reach the ship by morning, but we were cautious because we had no clue what was at the camp or around it.

Royce and Isabelle had gone off on their own to either scout or hunt, I wasn't sure. Getting up from where I sat, I took the canteen over to Spike and held it out to him. The big alien took the offered water as I glanced around.

"Thanks again for helping us." I said and he just shrugged while taking another drink. Biting my cheek, I then straddled Spike's hips and sat right in his lap while looking at him, causing him to choke on the water since the action had taken the alien by surprise. "Look, we both know that tomorrow is more than likely going to be the last day we're on this God forsaken planet if everything goes as planned, but I don't want to leave with any regrets. So, if you're down for it....want to recreate the Big Bang?" I smirked while giving double finger guns, and Spike's face fell to that familiar 'done' expression.

He stood up without warning, making me fall out of his lap and onto my back on the ground.

"Was it something I said?" I chuckled, but my smile fell when he grabbed my wrist and easily picked me up. I was rather confused when he drug me behind him a few yards from where we had made camp where he just let my wrist go. "What-" And I was cut off by my own surprised yelp when he turned to face me and just grabbed my ass.

Spike purred, squeezing his hands as my cheeks started burning. I had only been joking, but if the big guy was actually up for it, Hell, so was I. With a sly grin on my lips, I put my hands onto the back of his thighs, feeling the muscle beneath his skin as my palms traveled upwards and cupped his firm rear.

Suddenly, he pushed me down, bending me over a fallen log and I bit my bottom lip with anticipation. His large hand ran up my spine slowly, feeling along my back while making an exciting shiver shoot up my spine.

Slowly tangling his fingers into my hair, he fisted his hand and pulled my head back, his hot breath on my cheek as I felt his larger body covering mine. Digging my nails into the log I was bent over, my breath shook as I felt his other hand pulling my pants down over my ass along with my underwear. His fingers slid between my thighs and I jolted, feeling them run over my slit.

He purred, feeling my arousal soaking his fingertips as he began to rub my clit. Using his leg, Spike spread my thighs apart and added pressure to my clit, making me moan. His forked tongue ran up the side of my neck before curling over my throat. Spike's hand in my hair moved and was tugging my boots off to pull my pants the rest of the way off.

He didn't stop torturing my clit until I was completely naked beneath him and grabbed both of my thighs. I didn't even look back to see what he was doing as he easily lifted my legs to rest my knees on his shoulders and ran his tongue over my wet slit. I moaned again, digging deeper into the moss covered wood I leaned on. His mandibles pricked at my thighs and ass while his tongue circled around my clit.

I shuddered, panting already and nearly falling onto my face when that wet muscle dove into my core. My toes splayed as my thighs twitched, feeling it curl inside of me before retracting and diving right back in. Spike's purring sent a vibration along his tongue and I was unconsciously grinding my pelvis against his face while moaning. His hands on me kept me firmly in place as one of his thumbs was rubbing my clit and causing me to spiral.

When I finally came, Spike lapped up everything leaking out of me, making me excited yet again as his tongue moved roughly. I took in a sharp breath when he dropped my legs only to wrap them around his waist. I could feel something hard and wet pressing against my stomach and didn't even look to see what it was, I already knew.

"Oh, God." I mumbled, feeling it throb before Spike tilted his pelvis back and eased himself past my slick folds. My head hung from my shoulders as I moaned, my mind going blank as I felt each hot inch by hot inch stretching my walls. My thighs began to shake before he even started thrusting and when he did I nearly screamed with pleasure.

The big guy had a rather impressive cock, and he tangled his fingers into my hair again to pull on it while pistoning his thick length into me. He groaned, causing me to clench around him as his skin slapped against mine. My back arched towards the ground as I clawed at the log, moaning and panting as he fucked me far from gently.

~

Spike was nowhere to be found the next morning, but we were so close to the camp that Royce, Isabelle, and I all just went on ahead. We had our weapons ready for anything, but when we finally got there, we saw that the camp was absolutely empty. In all honesty, it looked as if no one or thing had been here for a long time- moss and ivy had already taken hold and blanketed most things in the area.

Finding the ship, it was in the same condition and we set to work on ripping the plants from the outside of the ship to try and get inside to see if it even still worked. It took hours to uncover it enough to find the door, but none of us could figure a way in.

"Now would be the perfect time for that thing to come back." Royce sighed, his hands on his hips as he took a step back to look at the dirty metal of the ship. None of it was rusted at least, but there was still no telling how long it had been sitting here.

"Speak of the devil." Isabelle mumbled, looking up while squinting and we followed her gaze to see a familiar figure sliding off the top of the ship and landing right behind us. He hit the ground with a heavy thud, and raised one of his arms and began to mess with the gauntlet on it.

"Did you make repairs?" Royce furrowed his brows, seeing the split and damaged wires in Spike's hand. The big guy didn't say anything, and the door just opened on the ship as Spike lowered his arm. He walked right by us and went into the spacecraft, but smacked my ass as he passed me.

I felt my face turn red despite my calm expression, and I stared straight ahead, watching the big guy turn on the lights in the ship. I knew Royce and Isabelle were looking right at me, but I tried to ignore both of them.

"....Leila, did you....fuck the alien?" One of them questioned and I said nothing as my ears burned.

"Leila. Did you fuck the alien?" The other one asked in a more firm tone and I raised my chin to be parallel with the ground.

"Yes, I fucked the alien." I then walked away from them and into the machine slowly coming to life. 


End file.
